Testimony Offers First Window Into Defendant's Own Account of His Time With al Qaeda

By

Charles Levinson

March 13, 2014 7:46 p.m. ET

Sulaiman Abu Ghaith showed up in Afghanistan in June 2001 to see for himself how Muslim rule under the Taliban was shaping up. Within days the Kuwaiti preacher caught the attention of Osama bin Laden, who tapped him to speak and preach on behalf of al Qaeda.

That is what Mr. Abu Ghaith told Special Agent Michael Butsch, from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, after he was arrested by U.S. law-enforcement officials last year,...